How Yandex Metrica detects the traffic source
Incoming traffic sources are detected via the referrer (the HTTP Referer header) and tags. If you need to replace the referrer with your own, use the utm_referrer parameter.
Yandex Metrica uses a tag to detect traffic sources if the tag is included in the data for the first pageview during a user session. If there isn't a tag in the first pageview, the traffic source is detected from the referrer.
For example, a user clicked through to the site from a browser bookmark (the first pageview). Then the user left the site, but came back within 30 minutes by clicking a link with a tag in an email (the second pageview during the session). This session would be considered direct traffic to the site.
| Traffic source | How it is detected | Default report |
|---|---|---|
| Direct traffic Cached page traffic Internal traffic | Referrer | |
| Recommendation system traffic | Referrer and UTM tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM tags correctly. | |
| Search engine traffic Link traffic Traffic from social networks | Referrer and UTM tags | |
| Other social media: identified by tags | UTM tags. Conditions that determine the data source. | |
| Yandex Direct traffic | Conditions for linking a tag to a Yandex Direct campaign | |
| Traffic from other ad systems | Referrer and tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM and Openstat tags correctly. | |
| Other advertising: identified by tags | UTM tags. Conditions that determine the data source. | |
| Messenger traffic | Referrer and UTM tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM tags correctly. | |
| Mailing traffic | UTM tags, Openstat, From. Learn more about proper tag creation. | |
| Click-throughs via QR codes | UTM tags. Learn more about proper tag creation. |
| Traffic source | How it is detected | Default report |
|---|---|---|
| Direct traffic Cached page traffic Internal traffic | Referrer | |
| Recommendation system traffic | Referrer and UTM tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM tags correctly. | |
| Search engine traffic Link traffic Traffic from social networks | Referrer and UTM tags | |
| Other social media: identified by tags | UTM tags. Conditions that determine the data source. | |
| Yandex Direct traffic | Conditions for linking a tag to a Yandex Direct campaign | |
| Traffic from other ad systems | Referrer and tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM and Openstat tags correctly. | |
| Other advertising: identified by tags | UTM tags. Conditions that determine the data source. | |
| Messenger traffic | Referrer and UTM tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM tags correctly. | |
| Mailing traffic | UTM tags, Openstat, From. Learn more about proper tag creation. | |
| Click-throughs via QR codes | UTM tags. Learn more about proper tag creation. |
